Kyoto Global Warming Treaty Will Meet Its End at
the United Nations Meeting in The Hague

The meeting of the Sixth Conference of the Parties to the United
Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in The Hague, Netherlands
from November 13-24 was designed to be the forum where the world's
nations would complete the details on how each nation would implement
the Kyoto Protocol, the treaty negotiated by the Clinton Administration
that would require the United States and major industrialized
nations to make economically-drastic cuts in carbon dioxide emissions
to combat the alleged threat of man-made global warming. Instead,
the Hague meeting will probably mark the end of serious efforts
to implement the treaty due to deepening scientific skepticism
about the seriousness of human-induced warming and the huge economic
costs it would incur on the U.S.

According to the U.S. Energy Information Agency, the Kyoto
treaty would cost the U.S. economy $400 billion per year, raise
electric utility bills by 86 percent and impose a permanent "Kyoto
gasoline tax" of 66 cents per gallon. WEFA, an economic information
and consulting firm, reports that 2.4 million jobs would be lost
and manufacturing wages reduced by 2.1 percent if the treaty is
ratified. Because the economy is so energy dependent , Kyoto would
also impose a 14.5 percent tax increase for basic goods. Minorities
would be especially hard-hit. A report commissioned by six African-American
and Hispanic organizations concludes that the treaty would reduce
the earnings of black and Hispanic workers by 10 percent and throw
864,000 blacks and 511,000 Hispanics out of work.

An equally important argument against the Kyoto treaty is the
mounting scientific evidence questioning the impact of human behavior
on climate change. NASA weather satellites, the most accurate
measurement of global temperature, indicate that the Earth stopped
warming more than 20 years ago. This contradicts the prediction
of global warming theory proponents that global warming would
cause the temperature to increase by 0.6 F° between 1979 and
2000. In addition, several European and American scientists say
that data from the European Space Agency's (ESA) Soho satellite
show that the Sun, not Man's burning of fossil fuels, is the main
cause of the global warming that occurred between 1850 and the
mid-20th century. Paul Brekke, Soho's deputy project scientist,
says that whatever merits there may be in taxing fuel, advocated
by Kyoto treaty proponents to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions,
"our evidence suggests it will not be much help in keeping
the Earth cool."

Many environmentalists now agree that the Kyoto treaty is simply
unrealistic. Eileen Claussen, President of the Pew Center on Climate
Change, a proponent of the global warming theory, says that it
would be "very difficult, if not impossible" to implement
the treaty. Instead, Claussen says that delegates "should
correct the flaws in the Kyoto framework."

John Carlisle, director of the Environmental Policy Task Force,
says: "The Kyoto treaty is a dead letter because it would
reduce the American people's standard of living based on a global
warming threat that many scientists believe may not even exist.
Some environmentalists are conceding that the treaty is unacceptable
for those very reasons."

Contact John Carlisle at The National Center For Public Policy
Research at 202-543-4110 x107 or [email protected].

Digital Divide? What Digital Divide?

The Reverend Jesse Jackson calls it "classic apartheid."
The NAACP's Kweisi Mfume decries "technological segregation."
To President Clinton, it's the digital divide, the alleged chasm
between the information haves and have-nots.

So says a new Project 21 New Visions Commentary by New York-based
opinion writer Deroy Murdock.

Murdock reports that President Clinton, earlier this year,
unveiled plans to give free computers to poor Americans, calling
for for $2.38 billion in taxpayer money to finance "1,000
community centers with computers serving the adults of America
who otherwise would not have access to them." Clinton, says
Murdock, also rhapsodized about the web's wonders. "I come
from a small town in rural Arkansas," Clinton said, "and
I've got a cousin that plays chess once or twice a week with a
guy in Australia. I mean, it's unbelievable."

The President's words sound nice, says Murdock, but his program
is unncessary: The free market is already accomplishing the goals
the President wants to meet with taxpayer funds.

Murdock also reviews inexpensive ways for low income Americans
to access the Internet, and describes programs by American Airlines,
Delta Airlines and the Ford Motor Company to give free computers
to employees. He also describes large gifts of computers and computer
technology to the poor by such companies as Microsoft, US West,
Visa and others.

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